


Smile For Me

by Komishika



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Cuddling, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-09
Updated: 2016-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-25 15:38:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6200983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Komishika/pseuds/Komishika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thomas wants a photo of Jimmy all for himself, but Jimmy has no recent photos and Thomas convinces him to have some made.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smile For Me

  
"Jimmy?"  Thomas roused the dozing blonde curled next to him on his too small bed.

  
"Hrm?"  Jimmy’s delicate lashes fluttered as his vision focused on Thomas next to him propped up on an elbow, holding a pocket watch in his other hand.

"Do you have a photograph of yourself?" Thomas asked still looking at his watch.  

Jimmy took a moment to think about what the few pictures he did own that traveled with him.  When he’d first gone into service just before the war his mother had sent him with a family portrait from when he was about twelve years old which he still had in his possession.  She had made a habit of getting him and his father to a photographer at least once every few years she could manage and there was enough money.  He’d only acquired a few more photos when his mother passed which was one of his father in his military uniform just before he’d left, one of himself in his own uniform which he’d had made for his mother just before he left, and the last family portrait that was made when he was fifteen.  After his mother passed one of the cousins that came to help settle affairs had gone through photos, handed the three to him insisting that he must take them and asked if he cared particularly about the others knowing that he didn’t exactly have the luxury of space.  When he inquired what would become of them if he didn’t take them she said she would keep them if ever he wanted them and if not would archive them along-side her own family photos, they were family after all.  He didn’t care and let them go took a book of his father’s to keep the portraits in so they didn’t get bent and ruined.  

"Nothing recent.  I’ve got one I had made for me mum in my uniform before I got shipped out and a couple of me with my parents from when I was younger."

  
"You haven’t been photographed since the war?"  Thomas asked with surprise.

"It cost money.  Not everyone goes having their picture made all the time. I remember hating when my mum made me go as a kid," Jimmy said defensively.  "When’s the last time you had a photo made then, Thomas? And what’s brought this on anyhow?" Jimmy asked sleepily.

  
Thomas closed his watch and leaned over Jimmy to set it upon his bedside table.  "Just had one done a few weeks ago to send to my cousin in Bombay.  We trade one every year to see what age has done to us.  We were close and don’t want to forget each other so we keep up appearances as though we see each other in person.   I got his for this year a few weeks back so I had one done and mailed it last week."

"Not as though I have anyone to send one to, and what’s the point of having them of myself?  I’m not a narcissist, you know."  Jimmy untangled himself from Thomas and sat up on the side of the bed.  

"Would you not have one done for me?"  Thomas sat up and moved to hug Jimmy from behind, twining his arms around his abdomen and planting light kisses on his shoulder and neck.  "You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I never want to forget you.  Just as you are now.  I’d still love to see the one of you in our kit, but it wouldn’t do for me.  I didn’t know you yet."

  
 Jimmy turned his head to the side to capture Thomas’s lips.  "If it means that much to you…"

"Just get one done on your next day off."

  
"I’m not sure how much it costs, and I also don’t have much money right now either."

  
Thomas let out a sigh and kissed the side of Jimmy’s forehead.  He moved to the other side of the cot and opened the drawer to his bedside table where he then extracted a few bills which he brought back and pressed into Jimmy’s hand.  "That should cover it.  Get a couple and I want one of you smiling."

"Thomas, people don’t smile for photographs."  Jimmy stood from the bed and gathered his pyjamas from the floor and began dressing.  It was getting late and time he should be returning to his own room.

  
"It’s 1924 Jimmy.  Everything around us is changing.  Be a part of it and smile for a photograph."  Thomas stood and as Jimmy pulled on his shirt he placed a chaste kiss upon the younger man’s lips.  "For me?  That smile you always only smile at me?"

"I’ll do it, okay.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get some sleep."

  
"Love you."  
Jimmy rolled his eyes. "Love you too even if you are bleedin’ soppy sometimes.  G’night, Thomas."   Jimmy cracked the door and peeked into the hall to verify the coast was clear then slipped out of Thomas’s room and made his way back to his own.

~~~

  
The day after Jimmy’s day off Thomas caught him just before breakfast and asked him out to the kitchen courtyard.  "So did you do it then?"

"Of course I did.  It was bloody embarrassing too.  Had to plead with the man to let me smile.  Told him I was having it done for a girl I might never see again who really wanted to remember me smiling," Jimmy explained.

Thomas chuckled at the story. "So, when do I get them?"

"Later."

"Meet you in the men’s hall after luncheon?" Thomas inquired.

"I suppose," Jimmy answered.

~~~

After luncheon Jimmy managed to make his way up to his room and retrieved an envelope which had the photos for Thomas.   He also pulled out his photo from before leaving for war since Thomas had wanted to see it, and made his way across the hall to Thomas’s room.

  
Thomas must have managed to make his way up the stairs not long after Jimmy as Jimmy didn’t feel he’d dawdled in collecting the photographs together, because Thomas was already in his room smiling with anticipation.

"Well then?" Thomas’s eyes focused on the envelope in Jimmy’s hand.

"First," Jimmy pulled the older photo from atop the envelope and handed it to Thomas, "that’s the last one that I had made that you wanted to see."

  
"Look at this dashing solider boy," Thomas commented as a wide grin spread across his face.  "I would have killed to have spent a few cold nights in the trenches curled up next to him."  Thomas handed the photo back. 

  
Jimmy found himself blushing at the comment.  Jimmy thought they’d moved past the point of Thomas saying or doing something that made him embarrassed enough to flush.  He took the photo back from him, and handed him the envelope in its place.

Thomas opened the envelope and pulled the photos out.  One was a shoulder up headshot with a very neutral expression, the others a series of head shots and full shots sitting on a small settee all with that smile of Jimmy’s that made Thomas melt.   "Can I keep them all?"

  
Jimmy shrugged his shoulders.  "I suppose so.  You paid for them.  What would you do with them all though?"

  
"Just keep them.  When you’re not around look at them.  Maybe if we grow old together we can look at them and laugh about me talking you into having them made."  Thomas raised a hand and cupped Jimmy’s cheek, stroking it with his thumb.  He leaned in to capture Jimmy’s lips into a short, sweet kiss. "Thank you, Jimmy."

  
Thomas went to his dresser and put away the photos then returned with a small one of himself "This one’s for you.  It’s only fair if I’ve got one of you for you to have one of me."

~~~

Like a number of nights Jimmy once again was naked, next to Thomas, in the under-butler’s bed.  He was half laying on top of Thomas, resting his head on his shoulder, his nose just in the crook of the older man’s neck.  Jimmy had a terrible sense of time when he was with Thomas, as in he lost all track of it.  He was thankful that his lover was generally very good and keeping up with the time and letting him know if he hadn’t already left by two in the morning he should get back to his own room to catch a few winks of real sleep before the next hard day of work.  "Thomas," Jimmy mumbled.  "Time is it?"

  
Thomas kissed Jimmy’s curly blonde locks and Jimmy felt him shift under him as Thomas reached for the bedside table to grab his pocket watch.  Jimmy raised his head to look at the watch alongside Thomas as it was clicked open. 

Before Thomas could tell him the time, Jimmy noticed a photo in the inside of the watch cover. "Why is that in there?"

  
"What?" Thomas asked.

"Why is my picture in your watch?"

  
"So that I have something of you with me all the time," Thomas explained.

"What if someone sees it?!"

    
"I’ve been careful.  It’s been in here since the day you gave it to me almost two weeks ago and no one has seen it," Thomas argued back.

  
Jimmy flushed and put his head back down to Thomas’s shoulder and squeezed the man tightly.  "Of course you’re careful.  Sorry."  Thomas may be carefree and able to admit he carried a photo of Jimmy like he did, but Jimmy didn’t know if he’d ever admit to Thomas he’d carried around the photo he’d given him in the breast pocket of his livery since that same day, pulling it out to sneak a peek at it when he found himself alone throughout the day.

**Author's Note:**

> I think I may have published this on my tumblr some time back (like maybe 3yrs ago). Sharing it all official now. It's just adorable drivel. I don't often do too many one shots, but maybe I should do more since I end up agonizing a lot less over them.


End file.
